This story appears in V139, the Supermodel, Superhero issue: now available for purchase!

Nessa Barrett is a TikTok success story. The New Jersey-born songstress rose to prominence on the app in 2019, lip-synching over humorous sounds and miming popular dances. To her millions of followers, she was just another pretty, charismatic teen. But Barrett had always held greater aspirations than landing on the platform’s For You page.

“Music was something that my dad was always passionate about,” Barrett recalls. “Growing up, I lived in a house with a studio in it.” Naturally, she wanted to share this passion with her fan base, even if that meant getting more personal than she’d been in the past. Soon, Barrett’s energized dance videos became less frequent, replaced by clips of her sitting in a chair and singing into a corded microphone, sorrowful and˜subdued.

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New fans flocked to the pensive videos that proved her a promising singer. Her breakthrough came when Warner Record executives discovered her TikToks in 2020 and, after signing with the label, a then-teenage Barrett released her haunting debut single, “Pain.” Chronicling the sting of a lover’s false promises, the track showed a deeper understanding of heartbreak than your typical teen ballad. In the years following, Barrett released a string of successful tracks—culminating in the 2021 EP Pretty Poison—that tackled more challenging subjects than a bad˜breakup.

Barrett, who was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and has struggled with anxiety, depression, and eating disorders, has used music to escape her demons by putting them into words. Her debut album, Young Forever, is the most extreme example of this to date. “I spent 14 months writing this album, and˜ those 14 months were probably˜the˜worst months of my life,” Barrett˜ says. “I made this album wrapped around a fantasy world—me fantasizing about heaven because I was living in my own hell.”

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On the single “madhouse,” she voices the volatile experience of living with mental illness while being in the spotlight. The track “die first,” a tribute to her late friend Cooper Noriega, tackles the complexity of grief and guilt. “Someone dies or someone gets hurt/ But if one of us dies/ I hope I die first,” she croons.

Though it’s her most personal work yet, Young Forever is also Barrett’s most powerful—something she’s excited about. “My entire purpose of making music is to help people that are struggling with mental health, too,” she explains. It’s a purpose she’s achieved tenfold, turning an unexpected platform into a means of healing herself and others. Barrett’s success story isn’t her gaining a platform. It’s her being unafraid to use it fearlessly and honestly. That’s what makes her more than a trend, a viral moment for you to scroll through and forget. Barrett’s sharing all of it: the good, the bad, the real.

Young Forever is now available on all streaming platforms.

 

This story appears in V139, the Supermodel, Superhero issue: now available for purchase!

 

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